Google has until 20 September to alter its privacy policy. The ICO said that it has written to Google and warned the company that it could take "formal enforcement action" against it if it fails to act.

"In our letter we confirm that its updated privacy policy raises serious questions about its compliance with the UK Data Protection Act," an ICO spokesperson said in a statement. "In particular, we believe that the updated policy does not provide sufficient information to enable UK users of Google’s services to understand how their data will be used across all of the company’s products.

"Google must now amend their privacy policy to make it more informative for individual service users. Failure to take the necessary action to improve the policies compliance with the Data Protection Act by 20 September will leave the company open to the possibility of formal enforcement action," the spokesperson said.

The ICO can serve organisations with a monetary penalty of up to £500,000 if it deems them to be guilty of a serious breach of the Data Protection Act.

The ICO is one of a number of EU data protection authorities (DPAs) that have been closely scrutinising Google's privacy policy.

Last March Google replaced over 60 existing privacy policies, covering services such as YouTube and Gmail, with one single all-encompassing policy covering the collection of personal data across all its services. The changes drew criticism from privacy campaigners and led EU privacy watchdogs, including the ICO, represented in the Article 29 Working Party to appoint French DPA the Commission Nationale de l’information et des Liberties (CNIL) to assess the single policy's compliance with EU data protection laws.

In April CNIL announced that it, the ICO, and watchdogs in Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands had formed a "taskforce" and agreed to pursue the possibility of separately levying penalties on Google for allegedly acting in breach of EU data protection laws.

The DPAs in the Netherlands and Italy are also both in the middle of processes that could eventually see Google sanctioned, whilst Hamburg's Data Protection Commissioner has also initiated an administrative action against the company and said that it will decide whether to further pursue enforcement options based on what Google has to say in a hearing.

Google has consistently argued that its single privacy policy complies with EU data protection rules.

Expertise in Confidential Information

Ideas, techniques and know-how can lie at the heart of a business. Pinsent Masons' international intellectual property team is dedicated to helping you to protect those intangible valuables that help you to stand out from your competitors.